The present invention relates in general to wind electric power plants, and, more particularly, to erection of wind electric power plants.
On-site installation of wind electric plants has proven to be a very difficult and delicate operation. Known wind electric plants have required the installation of a number of components, one at a time, which must be individually hoisted to the top of a tower. Each part must be bolted individually into the tower and each component fitted to the previously mounted part as that component is hoisted in place. The proper adjustment and alignment of each part is very difficult and under adverse weather conditions is seldom, if ever, done correctly. Only at the factory, where the assembly room conditions, tools and mounting equipment, proper alignment machinery and experienced personnel are available, can this kind of equipment be assembled together and tested to ensure proper operation when the equipment is hoisted to the top of a tower and installed.
Adverse weather conditions make installation of known wind electric plants even more difficult.
Furthermore, it requires highly trained personnel to be able to assemble a wind electric plant, especially under adverse weather conditions. Such highly skilled personnel are difficult to find, and the labor costs are extremely high, and may even prove to be prohibitive in some situations.
Even using highly trained and skilled technicians, perfect in-field alignment is extremely difficult to obtain. If the components of a wind electric plant are not perfectly aligned, some efficiency of the overall plant is lost. Under some conditions, the reliability of a plant is vitiated. This problem is especially serious when the plant will be subjected to intense weather conditions which may tend to exacerbate any misalignment problems or other errors incident the erection of the wind electric plant.
A further drawback to presently known wind electric plants is the failure thereof to perform exactly to specifications due to errors in installation. Such discrepancies between specification and actual performance may lead to overtaxing the windmill, or to a dissatisfied customer, both conditions being serious.
Accordingly, there is need for a wind electric plant which can be assembled under ideal conditions, tested under ideal conditions, then shipped to the use site, and erected so that the ideal condition assembly of the plant is not vitiated. Such a power plant will perform efficiently and reliably and the performance thereof will match the performance stated in the specifications.